The Shadow Effect

A US senator is assassinated and his guards are killed in a violent attack. The assassin detonates a grenade, taking out several people and himself. This event seeds the recurring nightmares that haunt Gabe throughout the story.

Gabe wakes up with nightly nightmares about the assassination. Brinn comforts him, and the couple runs a restaurant together. They are good friends with Sheriff Hodge.

Gabe's memory of the assassination intensifies whenever he hears a particular music motif. He experiences seizures as the memory resurfaces.

A politician and his wife are on a boat when Gabe disguises himself as the assassin to confront them. He falls off the boat, kills the politician, and detonates.

Back at home, Gabe wakes up with memories of the assassination that feel more real. The memory is persistent and unsettles him further.

Brinn takes Gabe to Doctor Reese, who provides medication intended to manage his condition. The doctor hints at experimental approaches to memory and control.

Under the medication, Gabe becomes oddly mechanical and begins receiving a list with a future target from an unseen man. The promise of a mission reactivates his killer instincts.

On the subway, Gabe pushes the designated target in front of a train. A cop chases him; Gabe kills the cop and detonates the attack, then wakes with the memory.

Gabe goes to the location of the cop's death and finds a finger identical to his own. Sheriff Hodge appears and kills him, ending that memory loop and triggering another awakening.

Gabe refuses to take Reese's meds, regains some control, and the mysterious Man provides another list. He pretends to follow the orders while trying to uncover the truth.

Gabe goes to a target but instead kills Hodge's men who traced him. Hodge chases him, but he escapes, carving out his own path rather than submitting to the program.

Gabe confronts Reese and returns home to discover Brinn is involved in the plot in a romantic sense rather than being his wife. Hodge arrives, and Brinn's duplicity culminates in Hodge killing Gabe.

Gabe wakes in a hospital, kills the doctor and a guard, and confronts Reese. Reese explains the cloning program and its purpose, revealing the project’s dark ambitions.

Reese explains that Gabe is a clone of a deceased Special Forces soldier and that Hodge was his commander. Brinn arrives to help fight Hodge's men, and they kill them.

Hodge uses the music to attempt to control Gabe, but Gabe regains control and kills Hodge. In a final act, Brinn is saved as they escape in an elevator, which rises as the facility explodes. Reese discusses closing the project with the Man; a few days later Gabe wakes up in a new apartment with the music returning.